CITY 6 PLYMOUTH ARGYLE 2
Simod Cup 2nd Round
10th November 1987
attendance 5,051
Scorers
City Hinchcliffe(5), Adcock(6, 39 & 40), Lake(75), Stewart(89)
Plymouth Tynan(44), Coughlin(89)
Ref Vic Callow
City Nixon, Gidman, Hinchcliffe, Clements, Lake, Redmond, White, Stewart, Adcock, McNab, Simpson – subs I Brightwell(70), Scott(70)
FROM THE PRESS BOX
PETER GARDNER WRITING IN THE MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS 11TH NOVEMBER 1987
Tony Adcock was the hat-trick hero in another Manchester City scoring spree last night.
But the biggest cheer of the night was reserved for the player who slipped in the final goal of City’s 6-2 victory against Plymouth in the Simod Cupat Maine Road.
Paul Stewart went round the punch-drunk Plymouth goalkeeper to take City’s goal tally to an amazing 16 in four days and earn a huge ovation.
His goal delighted the 5,000 crowd and earned an appreciative handshake from Adcock because of his masterly performance leading the attack and his unselfish play.
Adcock is the name on everyone’s lips after his second hat-trick in successive games but as he said: “Paul was brilliant and has been great for me personally. He has taken the weight off me and helped me with my goals.”
Plymouth are a neat footballing side worthy of their place in the Second Division and for spells produced some bright attacking football.
Indeed they picked up two goals last night through the well travelled Tommy Tynan and Russell Coughlin.
Don’t run away with the idea that they weren’t interested or are a poor team. City beat them by the virtuoso effort in a team obviously brimming with belief and confidence.
They simply picked up from where they had left off after scoring 10 against Huddersfield.
In only the fifth minute Andy Hinchcliffe swept up from left back at great speed to slam home David White’s cross.
Then the dynamic Adcock notched a true hat-trick, three goals on the trot without interruption in a devastating 35 minutes.
He burst through the middle from Eric Nixon’s goal kick, survived an attempt to pull him down and then pushed the ball past the hapless Steve Cherry.
He picked up his next goal from the impressive Hinchcliffe and then one from Paul Simpson.
Tynan pulled one back to make it 4-1 at the interval.
Cherry kept the score down with some fine saves for half an hour.
But Paul Lake, dominant in midfield, steamed through to score from Simpson’s free kick. Although Coughlin stepped in for a goal, Stewart had the last word running in the sixth goal.